


when i run out of air to breathe, it's your ghost i see

by mazescorched



Category: The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types, The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Angst, Apologies, Canonical Character Death, During Canon, Gen, Goodbyes, I Tried, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Sorry, Lots of Angst, TMR Movie Verse, that's basically it lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-05-29 00:14:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15060878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mazescorched/pseuds/mazescorched
Summary: when the walls came down, i was thinking about you- - -or: teresa's last moments





	when i run out of air to breathe, it's your ghost i see

**Author's Note:**

> playlist:  
> 1\. skin - rag'n'bone man  
> 2\. be not so fearful - ac newman  
> 3\. atlas: sorrow - sleeping at last
> 
> title/summary are from 'skin'. sorry for the poor writing quality, i literally wrote this because i was really sad about teresa and couldn't sleep

When the door erupted into flames behind them, Teresa Agnes knew that she was going to die. 

She’d escaped the clutches of death more than most people, she reasoned. Immunity to a virus that was wiping out the human race, and within that, sanctuary within WCKD’s walled city. Outside the city’s towering walls, the world was declining, decaying, disintegrating. The world was dying.

And somehow, she’d managed to escape it.

As the once-marvelous city crumbled to ash and brick beneath her, Teresa realized that no matter how far you ran, no matter how many walls you put up, the Flare would reach you.

Countless lives had been lost in the frantic struggle to find a cure. And against impossible odds, she’d managed to find one. If one more life must be lost to ensure a future for the human race, Teresa decided she would much rather have it be hers than the boy that stirred feebly next to her.

Her arms and legs burned as she struggled to support Thomas, whose hands were stained with crimson from the gunshot wound to his torso. She clutched the vial of serum in her hand, held it close to her almost as tightly as she did Thomas as she dragged him across the roof, scanning the smokey horizon for something, anything to carry them away from the city.

It was the only way all of it would be worth it. All the lives lost, the pain innocent children had endured. It would only be worth it if they could get the cure out of the city, and distributed to what was left of the world. So no one else would have to lose a loved one- a friend, a sibling, a parent. So no one else would have to suffer as she, and millions of others, had. 

The toe of her shoe caught on a piece of rubble, and she stumbled to the ground, wincing as her body connected sharply with the concrete. Thomas groaned in pain, eyes fluttering open, and Teresa pressed the vial of serum into his hand. 

Teresa didn’t know who moved first, but suddenly they were kissing, and there was a franticness, a desperation to it all.

As her face brushed against his, she knew, deep within her, that it would be the last time they would be together. The last- and first- time they would share a kiss, the last time she would see him.

It would be a miracle if even one of them made it out of the city alive, and as her lips brushed against Thomas’, Teresa vowed once again that she would do anything to make sure it would be Thomas that made it out. 

The city burned below them, and there was no time for monologues and speeches. No time to pray, no time to speak. She tried to put everything she had always meant to say into those few frantic seconds. That she was sorry for everything he and the rest of the Gladers had gone through as she watched from a computer screen. For turning her back on them in the Scorch, all in the name of finding a cure. When words failed her, she spoke through a kiss. Her apology, her thanks, that she had made her peace with their differing views. She didn’t agree with his actions, and she doubted Thomas agreed with hers, but she understood why he did what he did, and in the moment, that was enough. Teresa hoped he felt the same. She made her peace, she thanked him. 

She told Thomas she loved him as they broke apart, when she whispered ‘I’m sorry’, and found her voice thick with tears.

She loved him. And he loved her. Not in the way he loved Newt, but the manner in which Newt loved Sonya, his younger sister. Thomas was a brother to her. The only family she had left. The only family they had known in all their years at WCKD was each other.

Teresa said her goodbye in silence, as shouts and explosions rocked the buildings around them.

She said goodbye to her best friend, to the first person she had ever loved. She said goodbye to Thomas, her brother, the boy who was slowly bleeding out in her arms. 

And then, miraculously, the roar of an engine reached her ears through the din. A berg, piloted by Jorge, came into view through the smoke and fire, and she could hear the shouts of the people within. She closed Thomas’ hand tighter around the serum and hauled herself to her feet, legs trembling with exhaustion.

Somehow, despite the agonizing pain in her limbs, she managed to pull Thomas all the way to the edge of the roof. His skin was pale and clammy, and his eyes fluttered open and shut, and Teresa willed him to hold on just a bit longer. 

They reached the edge, and she tried again to raise him up to a standing position. She wanted to say something to him- anything, anything at all, but when she opened her mouth to speak, the only thing that escaped was a sob.

She reached towards the berg, just an arms-length out of reach for her straining limbs. If she took another step forward, both she and Thomas would plummet to the ground. 

Despite the sobs that threatened to pour from her chest, she managed to shout for the berg to come closer, closer. It was within her fingertips, so close she could nearly feel the warm metal beneath her hand. But the ship dipped out of reach, and she stumbled backwards. Teresa felt Thomas’ pulse grow fainter with each second, and she knew they were almost out of time.

‘Closer!’, she shouted, and her voice broke from the tears she now shed. Her free hand, stained with Thomas’ blood, grew damper as she struggled to brush away the tears that rushed from her eyes.

They managed to get closer, and when the berg was finally within the reach of her fingertips again, her entire body shaking from fatigue and her sobs, Teresa Agnes lifted Thomas into Minho and Brenda’s outstretched arms. 

She met Brenda’s wide eyes but didn’t understand why the short-haired girl screamed until she felt nothing but air beneath her feet.

It felt like time slowed to a stop, and she was falling, falling, falling. She saw half a dozen faces above her, all contorted in expressions of shock and grief from the safety . Minho and Brenda, Frypan and Gally and Jorge and Vince. And Thomas- Thomas had regained enough consciousness to be looking down at her as she fell. He stretched a hand out towards her, and she heard his scream from what felt like hundreds of miles away.

Memories came flooding back to her, slowly at first, but then all at once. She recalled a brunette woman’s warm smile. The glass windows of a laboratory, and a blonde woman’s soothing voice. Joy, in sneaking down hallways in the dead of night, and a familiar brown-haired boy, the way her cheeks ached with laughter.  
The soft, cool grass of the Glade, and the vaulting stone walls that seemed to reach up forever. Mystery in the Scorch’s blistering sunlight, and the strange beauty she found in the dilapidated buildings.  
Brenda, Newt and Minho. Aris, Sonya and Harriet. Frypan, Gally, Chuck. Winston and Jeff and Zart- some of whom she had only spoken to once or twice in her seventeen years, yet still recalled with astounding clarity.  
Wonder in the bright lights and skyline of WCKD’s last city, the splendor of the skyline from her apartment window at dawn. The cold glass of a vial of blue serum. On a burning rooftop, love- and the same brown-haired boy from all those years ago, only blood dripped from his side, and tears down her own face.

Time sped up again, and she was still falling, but felt a sense of peace as she plummeted into the dark unknown. She exhaled calmly, and looked up at the Berg, where her friends’ faces were still visible through the haze.

Teresa tried to find his dark eyes one last time, amidst the fire and dust that clouded her vision, to tell him that he was going to be okay, that his friends would be too. 

She looked at Thomas for the last time, as the Berg vanished beneath the shadow of another falling tower. ‘It’s okay’, she whispered, and the brunette woman’s smile grew warmer, engulfing her in its golden light, ‘It’s okay’.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks so much for reading! feel free to leave kudos or a comment if you enjoyed it or have any feedback, it would mean the absolute world to me. have a great morning/afternoon/evening :)


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